I promise. He kissed my neck. Ill miss your mothers cooking.
My parents home was on Richmond Hill, large and set back from the road, far
away from the rest of grimy London. The pine trees at the gate always
welcomed me first, with their lemon green scent and the memory of childhood
summers, scrambling up to the top branches, often away from my parents
arguing, to sit in the peace and dust motes with blood on my shins. I walked
along the tidy, tiled, black-and-white path to the front door, which my
father opened before I knocked.
We hugged. You look well. He held me back from himself.

How are things here? I asked, and he rolled his eyes.

Saeeds upstairs, settling into his room. He seems well enough. Your
mothers in the garden. She wanted some quiet. A bit overwhelmed, I think.

Ill go find her, I said, and he disappeared back into his book-lined
study.

Along the hall, the house was full of the smell of her cooking, the soft,
starchy scent of basmati, saffron, and roasting lamb. I went through the
kitchen with steam on its windows and along the narrow blue corridor with
its long cupboards full of henna, herbs, dried figs, and limes from her last
trip home. The air was cool above the terra-cotta floor, before the steps
down to the back door and into the garden.

I could hear my old tape player from behind the yew hedge and beyond the
rose garden, the tinny sound of tombok drums and sitar. I passed the
greenhouse, figs and jasmine growing up one side, overhanging the path, and
found her on the bottom lawn, kneeling quietly, eyes concentrating on her
hands, weeding and tidying. She was still beautiful at over sixty: high
cheekbones and dark hair to her shoulders.

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